So after having an interesting experience in Vancouver - I started thinking about boundaries. A long time ago I once read an essay written by my sister (I wonder if she even remembers!) about how man has gotten so power hungry and drawn all these lines in the world. Claiming this area to belong to him and that area to someone else - dividing lands into countries. She started musing whether someday man will start claiming the sky and the moon. This part of the sky belongs to me hence you can't stand underneath it :)
Well she might not have been too far fetched with the idea of claiming rights on the moon. Apparently U.S.A and Russia have full rights on the moon and they've begun selling acres of it. You get a legal deed sent to you! No kidding - it's actually quite official and worth quite a bit :) Now you can finally look at the moon and say "I own a piece of that!" Oh, the thrill!
Anyway before I get too side tracked and start talking about how commercial everything has become - let's stick to my topic! So in Vancouver, I went through a visa stamping process which like a lot of people turned out to be quite frustrating for me. While waiting in my hotel room trying to figure out whether I will be heading back to India or actually head back to my life I had been living for the last year or so - I really started thinking. The whole idea of visas, of countries - it started to seem so baseless. What if there were no countries? What if it was just Earth and its boundless beauty?
As idealistic as that sounded... I also began to realize how far we've taken the idea of boundaries. We protect what we believe is "ours". We fight, we strive to improve and shield dangers from lands which we beleive belong to us. Maybe if we started adopting Earth as our own, maybe we'd move so much further in preventing global warming and so many other issues, that attack Mother Earth's underbelly. But it's easier staking claim on more visible things I guess.
I remember when I was in high school studying history - back in those early centuries when lands were being fought over. Kings would go out to conquer and expand their territory - it would give them a sense of power. They would build their kingdoms, protect their people and grow stronger. Now that we zoom back to 2009, I wonder how far we've moved. We might have more or less settled on the boundaries of the world - settled into countries that we've been alloted to. But today - I think the real battle is with the boundaries or rather the borders of our own minds.
We have limited ourselves in our thinking - we've grown accustomed to our own lives. It doesn't mean we don't have good heart or pure intentions. But we've found solace in simply living out the routine of a life. Seeking momentary happiness and finding shelter in our safe lives. We've gotten scared and yet gotten used to acts of terror. They don't shock us as much.. the word terror or terrorist is part of our diction now. Some of us have held onto our race with deep ownership and others have shunned people on their beliefs. I wonder if things really were like my utopia.. if we really did embrace Mother Earth as our world - what would happen?
No one would bomb their own backyard... no one would hate their sister or feel the need to prove themselves. We'd prolly get closer to the true meaning of life. Truly discovering ourselves, discovering our humanity - the feeling that makes us the race we are. The most "intelligent" race with powers to do amazing things... to create, to evolve, to provide, to love, to spiritually be whole with each other.. We would be using everything inside of us and find out how deeply we are linked to each other. Every person, every creature, every being of life.
We would be propelled by passion and not invest in outcomes. We would truly be alive and beautiful. We would be amused by difference.. we would not judge, we would not be afraid, we would be safe... we would be grateful, would be humble and would heal, we would open our arms and embrace life as a whole... life, earth...the world we might stick our flags and put up our borders on... but a world which no one can claim rights on... a world that belongs to us.
Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier.
Well, sadly the skies and waters have been claimed too! Countries have their airspace and don't allow any aircraft to fly through it without permission. The same holds for oceans - the "border" extends to a certain distance into oceans as well :). Even Antarctica has not been spared - various countries have staked claims and some territories are disputed there... if you really think about it, it's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThe root cause of this, as you mention, is the greediness of human mind. And it is this greediness, which is the cause of most of the problems pertaining to unity and sovereignty, not just among the so called nations, but also within nations. And in some sense, it is these borders of mind, which lead to more hunger for power. So its a vicious circle in which mankind has trapped itself in. Its like a back hole, from which you cannot escape now. It was over the day the word patriotism was included in the English dictionary. But if a revolution can unite a single nation, it is certainly not impossible to unite a single planet. So is its power. But so is the nature of human development, that saying that chances of all earthlings thinking straight is zero, is an understatement.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Thanks for writing on an amazing subject. Its a topic on which very few think out of the box.
Inability to share what one has also has a role in it. It is the peoples who cherish the boundaries because they are worried that in a boundary-less world, the other 'less desirables' would move in and crowd those 'living peacefully and in relative comfort' out!
ReplyDeleteI think your view on embracing the whole planet and the potential outcomes is quite likely.
ReplyDeleteI believe that one of the major influencers of taking such a stance arises out of fear. When people cannot be trusted or are at a level of evolution that is centered in fear and not love, and are, in turn, surrounded by other such individuals, the natural tendency is to fortify a position of defense. At the smallest level, it is one's little area or physical space they can call their own, retreat into, and take a position of defense against the madness of the world.
I think as we become more evolved, we will realize this notion cannot grow with us and I believe it will change. The realization that we are not alone on planet Earth - that humans are not the only intelligent form of life in this universe - will certainly shift the notion of boundaries.
4 lines that ran thru my minds as I was listening to one of my CD's. The original context is different, but I thought it fits this idea well too...
ReplyDeleteIf everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died
Blog on ....